MoT's WDF

One thing I think this particular thread needs is more watch pics!

So if you've backed a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, or preordered a watch directly from a brand and had to wait weeks and months until you received your purchase, let's see them.

I'll start with the only watch Kickstarter I backed so far, the Direnzo DRZ 02.

Fell in love with the unique looks of the watch when I first saw a post about it and luckily was able to snag a super early bird slot.
Finally received it a week ago and suitably impressed.

What did you order and wait on and on and on for?

I backed the direnzo, then cancelled the pledge because I bought a Sinn 556... oops XD

My Hamtun H2 should come in August/September though

This came in yesterday. Kingsbury Dark Water. It's a bit chunkier than I expected, but it wears well on my 7.25 wrist. The bezel plays nicely with the light and at times makes it look grey instead of black. The wave patterned dial looks great on it, minute markers on the rehaut line up, and the lume is well done.

If I were to gripe a little it would be that I'd prefer slightly larger hour indices. These are dwarfed by the hands and the numbers on the bezel. The bezel pip also doesn't have very much (any) lume. I won't be diving so this isn't too impactful, but still a little disappointing.

Overall, I think this watch is a great value at $209US!


EDIT: Added a couple of shots on the rubber strap, lume shot, and comments about bezel pip.



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Also the Kingsbury Dark Water 300. So glad I opted for the bracelet. It is very high quality, with solid links and great finishing. The watch itself is IMO worth the money, and has some very well-executed features (ceramic bezel insert, applied indices, alignment of bezel markings to indices). One thing I do not particularly like is that the crown is awkwardly small for the size of the watch and has a “gritty” feel to its operation. It is not a smooth or buttery feel and is somewhat difficult to screw down. The corners of the crown guard are also very sharp, making using the criwn quite uncomfortable.

The bezel by contrast has a very smooth and precise feel and aligns perfectly with the indices, but the shape is very difficult to grip for turning....no way this would work with dive gloves. It is a minor gripe, but I also think the lume dot at the 12 o’clock position on the bezel is awkwardly large for the triangle it occupies. The metal frame encircling it extends over the sides of the triangle. Its really a nit, but I think a slightly larger triangle or smaller lume dot would look better.

The brushed finish on top of the lugs is well-done, but the vertical brushing on the sides of the case are not as refined, showing much coarser lines. The corners on the underside of the lugs are sharp like those on the crown guard...less of an issue, but noticeable when handling the watch.

The dial and over-sized hands are well-executed and part of the design. Lume quality is unknown and will have to be assessed. Overall I would say you definitely get your money’s worth with this watch, but it does have a few quirks.

Edit: Lume quality is decent but not Zelos great. Compared to my other watches with blue Superluminova, this one outlasts the Dreyden but fades more quickly than the Traska Freediver.

watchpalooza wrote:Also the Kingsbury Dark Water 300. So glad I opted for the bracelet. It is very high quality, with solid links and great finishing. The watch itself is IMO worth the money, and has some very well-executed features (ceramic bezel insert, applied indices, alignment of bezel markings to indices). One thing I do not particularly like is that the crown is awkwardly small for the size of the watch and has a “gritty” feel to its operation. It is not a smooth or buttery feel and is somewhat difficult to screw down. The corners of the crown guard are also very sharp, making using the criwn quite uncomfortable.

The bezel by contrast has a very smooth and precise feel and aligns perfectly with the indices, but the shape is very difficult to grip for turning....no way this would work with dive gloves. It is a minor gripe, but I also think the lume dot at the 12 o’clock position on the bezel is awkwardly large for the triangle it occupies. The metal frame encircling it extends over the sides of the triangle. Its really a nit, but I think a slightly larger triangle or smaller lume dot would look better.

The brushed finish on top of the lugs is well-done, but the vertical brushing on the sides of the case are not as refined, showing much coarser lines. The corners on the underside of the lugs are sharp like those on the crown guard...less of an issue, but noticeable when handling the watch.

The dial and over-sized hands are well-executed and part of the design. Lume quality is unknown and will have to be assessed. Overall I would say you definitely get your money’s worth with this watch, but it does have a few quirks.

Edit: Lume quality is decent but not Zelos great. Compared to my other watches with blue Superluminova, this one outlasts the Dreyden but fades more quickly than the Traska Freediver.

Picked up my Dark Water yesterday. Initial thoughts mirror those above - generally a quality piece but three main, but arguably minor, gripes:

- lume on the indices is fine, but on the hands is crap. Not quite crap enough for me to do anything about it, but noticeable.
- the crown is, as pointed out, small and a bit "gritty". It's not really in keeping with the rest of the watch and it was difficult to set the day and date.
- on the bracelet, the top clasp on mine comes slightly loose as I move my wrist around.




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Halios Seaforth Bronze - Fume Grey. Arrived yesterday.
A few more pics and short info here viewtopic.php?p=39066#p39066

I've never pre-ordered a watch from Kickstarter or Indiegogo but I have pre-ordered a couple directly. This is the most recent. The Halios Seaforth "B" or Bronze. Thread link here. This wasn't the typical pre-order experience. I signed up to be included in the lottery for this watch and my name didn't get picked. As it came closer to the shipping date more spots opened up but I still didn't make the list. Eventually a WUS member gave a heads up that there were some unclaimed Bronzos so I immediately emailed Halios and claimed a fume sunburst grey dial version. The fumé effect doesn't show up so well in my pics. I"m extremely pleased with this watch but I'm afraid it's making me want more bronze watches.

The good
Newmark

It’s made well, I was a little surprised at the quality. It wears big because of the lugs I think, it doesn’t overlap my wrist though so it is a keeper for now.

Manchester Watch Works Tatoskok II


I love it, it’s a little big, but manageable because of the no lugs. Superb quality.

The bad
Not bad because of the quality, this is actually very well made and thought out. Bad because I found out I didn’t really like brass or bronze as much as I thought I would. I read somewhere that after a while, your wrist will smell like handling coins at a casino. Not my favorite scent. At least my venture into the brass/bronze world wasn’t financially bad. People were commenting on how comfortable the watch strap was, I didn’t think so. It also came with a leather strap with a stainless buckle, I never tried it, I never even took the plastic off the dial. I bought a black mesh bracelet to switch it on to, but I never even did that because I just didn’t care for the watch.

Is your Newmark black? If so, I have the same variant. I really like it.

It’s blue, I’m a bad picture taker. I often joke that I could make a Shelby look like a Yugo.

Dorothyparker wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 6:49 pm It’s blue, I’m a bad picture taker. I often joke that I could make a Shelby look like a Yogo.

Haha. How do you like the blue? I also have the silver dial with 12-hr bezel and I am thinking about trading it for the blue bezel/dial version.

I like it, actually more than I thought I would.

Thanks for sharing those watches [mention]Dorothyparker[/mention]!
Since there is another pic thread for Kickstarter/group funded/preorder watches, going to merge these two together.

Please keep posting if you back any other campaigns.

I was told to show off here!


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